


Life After Death

by TresTails12



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Chill guys everything will be okay, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, M/M, here comes the tears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-06 08:58:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12814089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TresTails12/pseuds/TresTails12
Summary: Why did this happen? The mission, the hijack, the sentries, how he fell... It hurts, I miss him, come back to us, come back to me.





	1. Chapter 1

The mission became a lot harder once they got to the center of the core. Enemies were flanking them everywhere and Lance was pondering if maybe they all should have stuck together. Those sentries were swarming everywhere but Keith shouted something that they would be able to hold their ground, so Lance just went with it.

Allura had assigned them on a mission to secure a Galra base that was experimenting on subjects from all different types of races. They were to first, hijack the main frame and take over the sentries, then find the commanding officer and reprimand him. Shiro and Hunk were assigned taking down the commanding officer, while the remaining three would go to the center of the base and plug in a virus that would deplete all orders from the sentries, turning them off. It was all mainly up to Pidge cause she was the computer wiz, and Lance and Keith were assigned to stealthily guarding her as she hijacked the main system. 

But when she was half way through her hijack, sirens blared.

“Paladins!” Allura’s firm voice called to them over their speakers “What’s happening down there? All systems have been suddenly alerted to your presence!”

“Sorry about that,” a winded Hunk called out, it sounded like he was being berated by gunfire “We got spotted!”

Shiro voice came in “The Sentries rhythm is different than other Galra ships, they must have updated their system. We’re taking a longer root to snag their leader.”

“Be careful,” Allura called with concern in her voice.

Then Coran spoke “Shiro and Hunk, take a detour to your left and up the second flight! Keith, Lance, and Pidge, you have upcoming Sentries coming your way. Any minute now!”

“Oh great,” Lance mumbled sarcastically as he pulled up his bayard which transformed quickly into his firearm. 

Keith pulled out his shield and sword, while glancing at Pidge.

“You’ll two will have to shield me!” Pidge exclaimed, “I got to finish uploading this program, they have several virtual walls blocking this stuff.”

“Alright just hurry!” Keith called as he drew his attention to the door, taking cover around Pidge. Lance pulled back to the left of the door, aiming his bayard right at the center. 

Next thing they knew all hell broke loose, Sentries began pouring in, but Keith and Lance were able to hold them back. Keith was shielding Pidge from any stray hits while also getting in a few clean cuts in the Sentries as they tried to approach him. Lance was able to freely shoot as many as possible. He’s been going to the training deck a lot more recently, so he was a lot more nimble on his toes.

“Lance, your right!” Keith would shout as Lance would blast away the robots, and Lance would reciprocate a similar response.

“Two coming your way Buddy!” he called as he smashed one on the side with the end of his bayard, whilst also firing two more afterwards. It was tough at first, but the two almost cleared out most of the Sentries. There were a few new ones, that almost looked bug or drone like as they tried firing lasers at the three, but they were easier to fire down than the normal ones.

There was about a dozen still left when Pidge was seconds away from finishing her hijack, when suddenly above her head on the walls there was a secret door from the vents pulling up with one of those bug Sentries crawling through. She saw it through the reflection of her computer screen and whipped around to barely dodge a laser blast that fired past her cheek. She rolled out of the way, but it fired for her again, making it difficult to get back on her feet.

Keith heard the sound behind him, alerted to the blasting to see Pidge in trouble. Slashing past a Sentry that was giving him trouble, he dashed to her and swung his sword under the belly of the drone. It fizzed out and died immediately.

“Thanks Keith,” Pidge thumbed up at him, but before he could return the gesture, another sentry came from behind him, firing at him as well. Keith dodged its laser blasts, and swiftly spun and slashed its shoulder. He pushed the thing to the wall, pining it to rock; it was unable to move its arms or gun. His sword sunk in, with the robot’s lights dying Keith smirked at his victory.

Another blast came out of its firearm.

Keith felt it go through his chest. His armor did nothing as laser tore through his heart. He froze, as he watched the lights officially die from the sentry’s face. 

Lance and Pidge both looked up at that one sound of gunfire. The one shot that sounded like it shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. Lance glanced behind him to see Keith stumble back; he was still standing. In that spilt second he could see his face was so pale, his lips were trembling, and smoke from the laser blast was flowing out of his back. He watched as Keith lost his footing, dropping his sword and the sound of his shield died. Pidge was running to him slowly, her face was written with terror.

Lance suddenly felt a surge of fury, a rush of adrenaline as he lit up his blaster clearing out every sentry he could with his voice screaming at the top of his lungs. The sound of his bayard and his screaming took up all the noise in the room as he cleared out the remaining robots. Even after Pidge’s virus took place and the robotic soldiers became still and complacent he still fired down at them, every last one of them.

When there were no more and the smoke had drifted, revealing a sea of dead robots, Lance finally snapped back to what just happened. Keith was shot, and hurt. He needs medical help. Lance dropped his eyes off the dead sentries and ran to Pidge and Keith. He glanced first quickly at her computer monitor; it flashed green as if saying mission success. Then he snapped his focus to the two, and what he saw made his heart sink. 

Pidge sat there with Keith head on her knees. She removed his helmet, and rested her hand on his head. She didn’t look to Lance when he walked up. Lance darted to Keith side seeing he was unconscious and pulled his gloves off to feel the pulse in his neck and wrists. While he did so he tried to listen to hear if he was breathing. He wasn’t, and Lance couldn’t feel a pulse. He called to Pidge “Help me take off his armor, I’m going to try to make his heart beat again.” While he was taking Keith’s armor off, he didn’t get any response from her, she didn’t move at all. He still couldn’t see her face, but he had to prioritize over Keith first. 

Lance placed both hands over Keith’s heart and started pounding it. He pushed with so much force, murmuring soft things under his breath “Come on Keith, wake up you jerk. Come on. Wakey up Keith. Quiznak, wake up dude, come on. Wake up, wake up. Keith I-“

“Lance…” It was Pidge, she finally said something. Lance glanced at her briefly as she said, “He’s gone.”

Lance stopped his hands as he stared down at Keith “Pidge I-“

“His heart monitor is dead,” Pidge’s voice was shaky and cracking, she was holding back a sob “He’s…gone…”

Lance froze, as he stared. But he slowly pulled himself back up, because he knew. He knew, damn it. 

Keith was gone. 

He didn’t move anymore, he just stared at Keith’s body. He wasn’t going to wake up was he?

Lance’s somewhat could hear Pidge crying besides him, she was sobbing her eyes out like a little kid. But for some reason Lance didn’t want to cry, not yet. Wasn’t that weird?

Shiro’s voice came over the coms “Pidge good job on the system hijack, we have secured the commanding officer, Hunk is sending him out in a pod. Paladins, it’s time to head back to the lions.”

No one responded, they couldn’t hear him “Paladins? Lance? ... Pidge? Keith?” Lance’s focus snapped to attention at that name. His lips trembled as his voice croaked in a whisper.

“We’re here Shiro,” his eyes felt heavy, his body felt like stone.

“Lance, good to hear you buddy, get everyone to their lions,” he stated, but Lance forgot to answer, his eyes were too focus on the body before him. The lifeless body, the body that is so young “Lance?” The body of Keith, who was a friend, who was a rival, who was- “Lance, is something wrong?”

Lance glanced to Pidge and answered a soft and shaking “Shiro…”

“Lance what happened, is someone hurt?” Shiro asked, but Lance didn’t answer again, he was beginning to be swallowed by despair “Lance are you hurt?”

Lance shook his head even though he knew Shiro couldn’t see it, he muttered “No, not me…”

“Is Pidge hurt?” he asked concerned and serious.

“No, it’s-“

“Is it Keith then?” Shiro questioned.

Lance paused then, his voice meek and weak he said “Shiro… Keith he’s… he’s…”

Shiro snapped to attention and said with a firm voice “Stay there, I’m coming. Hunk, you go to the ship first, we’ll follow.”

Lance could hear some of Hunk’s protests, but he’s pretty sure Shiro managed to convince him otherwise. He’s good at that; he’s good at being the authoritative figure. He’d always tells Pidge to go to bed earlier, he’d tell Hunk what space food he should probably watch out for, and he’s always get between Keith and him when…when they would fought. Lance glanced at Keith again, there wasn’t any movement, and he was completely still. How was Shiro going to react? He seemed to know Keith before they all met together. Lance never did ask how they knew each other. He wondered if…

The doors slid open and Lance weakly glanced up at the man, our black paladin who seemed exhausted from this entire mission. Lance wondered how tired Shiro actually was, and he wondered how tired he looked too. 

Shiro rushed up to them and just slowly stalled his pace as his eyes fell on Keith, he tore off his helmet as he reached him. He touched his face, and did everything Lance did earlier to check for his pulse. He eventually rested his hand on Keith and sighed. It sounded so tired, so lonely, but he stood up and said “We need to get him back to the ship, I’ll carry him.”

“Shiro I can-“ Lance was about to offer a helping hand, but Shiro shook his head.

“Lance if you could help up Pidge instead, that would be great,” Lance hated to see anything great about this situation, but he helped Pidge up anyways who carried her laptop. She was still bawling her eyes out. Lance wondered how long she was crying for; since he was consumed with grief as well he couldn’t tell. As they walked Lance felt brotherly instincts kick in as he tried to sooth her continuous crying. After some time of her weakly walking out of the base, she only softly whimpered, nuzzling her face in his side.

They got to their lions and soared to the castle, and surprisingly the Red lion followed them up there, even without her paladin. Lance and Pidge reached the castle first and slowly made it out of their hangers. Lance was the first one to reach the control room where Hunk, Allura, and Coran were there with large smiles on their faces. Allura whipped around to say “Welcome back Pala-“ But she froze at just the sight of just Lance, and how tired he looked “Lance, where are the others?”

Lance stared at her, with a sunken look and said distantly “They aren’t here yet…?”

“No, only you and Hunk,” the princess’s smile was faltering.

“I don’t know…” Lance sighed as he dropped his helmet on the ground, his shoulders sagging and head held low. He wanted to fall on the ground right there and not get up.

Hunk walked to him first and said kindly “Hey buddy, what’s up? What happened to your bouncy attitude from before, you seem so…”

Lance gazed at him with watery eyes, his voice breaking “Hunk I- is it my fault?”

“What are you saying buddy?” Hunk asked softly with concern in his eyes.

Suddenly the control room door opened behind them and there stood Pidge, she seemed so much smaller than before, with tears staining her cheeks. As soon as she got in she broke down crying again, her wails were so surprising and quick Hunk jumped backwards, but Lance rushed to her immediately, enveloping her in his arms. He pulled her to the side as tears continuously poured out of her eyes.

Hunk spoke up “Whoa, whoa, what’s happening, you guys, what going on?”

Through Pidge’s broken cries she sobbed “Keith he- why didn’t that have to—I’m so sorry!”

“No, no, no, Pidge, it’s not your fault,” Lance whispered as he looked away. He gazed to the endless stars that looked so beautiful and unmoving. His eyes felt dry as he watched them, wondering to himself why this was all happening.

The control room door opened again and now it was Shiro, who was holding Keith in his arms. He was silent, but he looked like he aged another ten years. His eyes were heavy and downcast as he tried to look up at the others and when he finally spoke, it was in such a weak voice Lance couldn’t believe it was coming from Shiro’s mouth “Princess, the mission was a success, but…”

“Oh no,” she whispered in horrified shock.

Shiro then fell onto his knees still holding Keith in his arms. Hunk jumped again at the sudden movement and asked “Is he- oh my god is he…?”

Shiro looked up at him with sadness riddling his eyes and painfully answered, “Yes.” Hunk was taken back with small no in his voice. He was on the verge of tears, but instead he approached Shiro with his large hands and brushed Keith’s hair out of his face.

“No, that’s-that’s gotta- that can’t be true…” Hunk muttered “He’s Keith, he wouldn’t- how?”

“A sentry,” Lance mumbled, he didn’t see any of them anymore, or at least he wasn’t looking, but he could hear them. He was still holding onto Pidge “It got to him, it hit his heart.”

“No, not Keith, he is so-was…” Hunk finally broke down crying, loudly, but weakly. Tears flowed from his eyes and snot covered his lips as he tried to look at Keith, hoping somehow he’d wake up with a smile. That sweet smile you see him wear at the rarest of moments and tell Hunk he’s okay; that it was all a misunderstanding. Lance wanted to see that too, but he knew, he wouldn’t. 

He saw Shiro shaking with his face downcast, and he saw Allura and Coran rush over. Allura tried to stifle her cries with her hands, but he could see the tears flow quickly over her soft brown cheeks. Coran rubbed her back and Shiro’s as he held them close, putting their heads together. Lance had never seen Coran look so worn down and hard. His face became so serious as his eyes stared down at Keith. He didn’t cry, not then, but he would.


	2. Falling apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I go to each member of the team for some one on one, to talk about their grief and our loss.

A few hours after the mission, Coran placed Keith in some sort of Altean morgue tub. It was dressed in soft white cushions, and rimmed with some sort of space silver. Keith himself was uniformed in a white Altean Sleep Gown is what Coran called it, and was rested on the white cushions. He looked so peaceful there.

Shiro, Lance, and Coran were the only ones present. Coran brought Allura to her room to calm herself down, Pidge was in her room too, and Hunk was in the only place that would bring him sound of mind; the kitchen. Shiro was standing above Keith with a sorrowful face and would mouth the words ‘I’m sorry’ countless of times. Lance watched from the door as Coran was telling Shiro of what were going to happen and the procedures. He was also telling him that everyone should rest, so they can mourn. No one had even mentioned yet what would happen if they needed to form Voltron, no one wanted to talk about that, not now.

Shiro eventually couldn’t stay a second longer and excused himself. Lance watched as he left the room then turned to Coran who was sighing a lot this afternoon. He slowly walked to him and tugged on his sleeve. Coran turned to him, trying his best to pull up his winning smile, but it was impossible at the moment.

“Coran…” Lance sighed sadly “Can I help…?”

Coran shook his head and placed a comforting hand on Lance’s shoulder “You shouldn’t today,” he couldn’t help looking towards Keith. He sighed then said, “If you’re up to it, could you check on the others. Just see how they’re holding up.”

Lance nodded soulfully.

Coran then said, “I didn’t…” He trailed off for a minute, but Lance waited. He waited and watched as Coran’s face contorted with pain, “I didn’t want this to happen again; especially not to children. I-“ His back sunk as he held his face in his hand “I didn’t want to have to let go of anyone anymore. I thought- I wished that I wouldn’t loose anyone anymore. But now…” He looked up to Lance; his eyes were watery, the giddiest man Lance had ever met was breaking from grief before his very eyes “If I could take on all these burdens from all of you I would. I’d shoulder it on this aching back of mine. I just didn’t want to loose anyone, not after loosing all of Altea, King Alfor, and everyone I knew, I just-“

He stopped talking and turned away, his fist were clenched and shaking “Please go see to the others Lance.”

He sounded so distant and so cold, but Lance understood. He nodded, looked to Keith who lay there soundly, and darted out of the room.

He darted through the hallways, not really knowing where he was going, until what he thought was Pidge’s room. He stopped and knocked; there was silence but the door soon opened. She was there with tired eyes and a nodding head. She looked exhausted. Lance bent down to her level and held her again. She sunk her face into his shoulder as he rubbed her back and asked, “Sorry, were you sleeping?”

“I’m trying,” Pidge mumbled “I’m- but… you know I’m a night owl. And when I stay up usually Keith is too and…”

“He never really did sleep did he?” Lance tried to smile at all the times he found Keith sneaking through the castle’s fridge in the middle of the night and when he joined him on those late night snacks.

“Yeah,” she held onto his shirt and quietly whined “Is it okay, if you stay around, to help me sleep?” She seemed a bit embarrassed at that question, but Lance, being the big brother type he is accepted. They rolled over in her sheets, as she would talk about all her memories of Keith. Some even Lance didn’t know about. She talked fondly about how one time he stepped on her closed computer without her knowing and went to her apologizing profusely about it. But she told him to relax because she probably shouldn’t be leaving it on the floor anyways. She said another story of when they were in the Milxs Galaxy and on the Uben Planet that one time they encountered a scary rustling in the bushes, they both had their bayards out, but it turned out to be a cute minx alien that attached to Keith’s leg and wouldn’t let go until he pet it for an hour. Lance laughed at that, saying something like Keith probably deserved it or wow cute. But then he sighed as he watched Pidge begin to fall asleep.

Before she did, she mumbled something to him “Lance, I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault Pidge,” Lance said as he patted her head.

“But if I made my computer run faster or if I was faster maybe…”

“It’s okay, Pidge. This isn’t your fault.”

“I…” tears began falling from her face again as he drifted even further to sleep “I’m sorry.” She hiccupped “I knew he was your…” 

She fell asleep as Lance was left wondering what she was going to say, but knew he wasn’t going to wake her and pry her for answers.

He carefully left her bed as he raised her sheets over her shoulders and pulled her glasses off, resting them to the side. He left her room and went to explore the rest of the castle. He then saw Hunk, he paced out of the kitchen then went back in. Lance followed him calling him “Buddy?”

That snapped Hunk’s attention as he said “Oh, hey Lance,” he smiled but it quickly faltered, “I was just trying to think of what to make.”

“Did you not make anything yet?” Lance looked around at the array of ingredients, there were two bowls on the floor, and array of utensils and ingredients on the counters making an absolute mess, and Hunk looked like he was splattered by whatever he was trying to make.

“Uh, yeah, but none of them really came out well,” Hunk smiled nervously as he began searching through drawers.

Lance glanced to stacks of saucers with burnt food; Hunk never burnt food. He walked over to the big guy, watching him look through what is probably Altean computerized cook books. They were all in Altean, but he knew Hunk could figure out the recipes just by looking at them.

“I was thinking, maybe something fun like rosettes or berry cookies, or maybe those blue little sundaes,” Hunk was beginning to sound excited “I know everyone likes those right? I’m sure they’ll want something to eat.”

“Aren’t-“ Lance was about to ask but cut himself off as he quickly glanced at the ground.

“What?”

“Aren’t those Keith’s favorites…the sundaes?” Lance asked slowly.

Hunk looked at him, there was a lot written on his face. There was pain, anguish, surprise, nervousness, and sadness. He leaned forward on the counter with his hands supporting him “They are aren’t they… I-I forgot, I think.” He looked at Lance and said, “Isn’t this all a bit to sudden?”

“It is,” Lance nodded.

“Lance?”

“Hm?”

“Have you cried yet?” Lance looked up, but shook his head.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he rubbed his feet together anxiously as he ringed his hands “I want to Hunk, I just can’t.”

“You’re so quiet,” Lance felt pretty shocked at those words, and Hunk adverted his eyes away “I’ve just never seen you this quiet.”

“I just think I need to shut my big dumb mouth.”

“Lance,” he looked up at the yellow paladin “You’re not dumb okay?”

Lance stared at him for a moment then nodded “Okay.” 

“I mean if anyone’s dumb it’s me, honestly,” Hunk smiled painfully “I was the one who alerted the guards.”

“Hunk no,” Lance firmly stated “Don’t go beating yourself up buddy, you can’t.” Lance approached him, swinging his arms over and around the big guy’s shoulders. Hunk gently patted him back, but there was no effort to it. Lance clearly could tell he was beating himself up too.

They talked for a little while longer while looking for the ingredients to make the little blue sundaes, until the conversation took a strange turn “I know this isn’t the right time to ask, but Lance…”

“Yeah?”

“Will you be okay?”

“As okay as everyone else will be,” Lance answered.

“No I mean, Keith, you l-“

“Hunk,” Lance had an extremely serious face on as he cut him off, he was so tired “Please, not now.”

“Okay…” they continued in silence for a while, but Lance eventually did leave, for whatever reason he left. He found himself in the control room again, and found someone who isn’t supposed to be there. 

Allura was sitting there, gazing at the stars; her mice were next to her and squeaked at Lance’s presence. She turned to him and he was pulled back again at how lovely she was, she was very beautiful, there was no doubt about that. But he didn’t like it that he saw tears in her eyes, no, that wasn’t okay. 

He walked to her and said “Um…”

“Lance,” she rubbed away the tears in her eyes “Come sit down.” 

He was a little startled by this invitation, she’d usually pushed him away with any means necessary, but he came by anyways. He cautiously approached her than sat down all quiet like. Once he got to her she was already staring up at the stars again “Aren’t you suppose to be in your room princess?”

She chuckled in front of him and said softly “What are you my mother?”

“No, I…” but he chuckled to. He was acting quite like a mother hen these past few hours.

They sat there quietly when Allura spoke up again “This galaxy always had the most beautiful planets and stars, each planet was so warm and soft looking. I have had so many good memories here, but things change don’t they.”

“Allura?” Lance asked

“Mhm?” she hummed back at him.

“Can we go back to Earth?”

She swiftly turned her head to him, opening her mouth about to protest when Lance continued, “To bury him.”

“Oh.”

“It’s a tradition on Earth,” Lance said distantly “To bury your dead in the ground.”

“In Altea we would always cremated them, sending their ashes to space,” Allura told him.

“Can we do an Earthly burial?” Lance said, “It’s at least what he deserves, I don’t know where else to bring him. We could bury him maybe where that stupid desert shack was.”

“Is that a place fit for Keith?” Allura wondered.

“I don’t know,” Lance sighed, he was just so tired “I just think his place was back at home, but that’s what just I think.”

“I think…” Allura thought, “It’s a little bit too soon to be talking about this.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” Allura comforted “Because we’ll all be mourning for quite some time.”

“Right,” he leaned on her shoulder and sniffled. She didn’t seem to mind; instead she groomed his head with her fingers.

“We’ll all need each other these future days,” she stated “But I think it is I who should be apologizing.”

Lance looked up at her with confusion when she said “I have burdened you all with the power of Voltron and the responsibilities it held. When you all had your own homes and families to return to.”

“Allura,” Lance interrupted her before she could go on “We’re doing this for a lot of reasons, but it’s mainly to protect everyone who has families. We’re forming Voltron because it’s the right thing to do. I’m sure Keith would have agreed.”

“He would, wouldn’t he?” Allura laughed with a sob in her throat as she held her head low. She brushed her tears away; she was trying to be so strong “I have to manage. It’s at least what Keith would’ve wanted.” She raised herself up and told Lance “I think I’ll be excusing myself to my quarters for the evening. Thank you, Lance.”

He smiled at her as she left, the mice didn’t follow her immediately. They glanced at him; they almost looked like they had worry in their eyes. Lance patted them and said, “Go on follow her. It’s not like I can get everything I want. I was just too slow with Keith.” They brushed against his fingers as they took their time leaving one at a time, glancing back at him until they followed the princess out the control area.

Lance continued to walk around the castle haplessly. He had no direction, but ended up at the training room. And there, was the last one. It was Shiro. He was sitting crossed legged in the center; his back turned from the door. He didn’t seem to notice Lance coming in. Lance came over and sat down next to him. He curled his legs to his chest as he looked ahead trying to imagine what Shiro was seeing.

“I think…” Shiro sighed, “This was his favorite part of the castle.”

“It smells like him in here,” Lance stated.

“It does,” Shiro smiled “Just goes to show how much he trained in here.”

There was a long silence, a calm serene silence, until Lance spoke “Everyone’s blaming themselves.”

“Really?” Shiro wondered.

“Yeah, but it’s none of their faults,” Lance bulled up his fists tightly.

“I can’t blame them,” Shiro said “I blame myself too.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Shiro sighed again “I didn’t want to loose anymore teammates, and I did. And Keith of all people.”

“Would you rather it have been one of us?” Lance questioned worriedly.

“No, I’d rather it have been me,” Shiro explain, “I know that’s a selfish thing to want, but I really mean it.”

Lance adverted his eyes away and felt a cringe in his stomach. He thought to himself ‘See stupid mullet, you’re making everyone sad. Its no one’s fault but your own you jerk. How dare you make everyone so sad, how dare you… break my heart… you big jerk’.

“Lance,” Shiro sighed whimsically “Can you imagine it?”

“What?”

“Him, training in here, like he hadn’t gone anywhere at all?”

It was a weird question, but yeah, Lance could imagine it. He could see it now, Keith battling it out with the gladiator, doing all his cool moves against it. He can imagine him jump across the Training room, dodging anything it threw at him, he could imagine getting Keith stuck in the invisible maze and him beginning to yell at Lance for getting him trapped in a corner. He could imagine him pulling up his hair, as he was about to get serious. He could imagine his violet eyes darting about the room as he was planning on where to dodge his opponent. He could imagine or remember it all. And it saddens him. He couldn’t stay. Lance got up and left Shiro without saying a word. It may have been rude, but he couldn’t stay in that room any longer. 

Lance passed Allura’s room where he could hear her talking to Coran, they both sounded like they were crying. He kept walking until after awhile he made a full circle around the castle and found himself back in front of the morgue. Oh when would he find peace?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys crying yet?


	3. Parts of a puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I come full circle back to where Keith is resting, I sit by his side, and lets my emotions get to me saying something I wish I said a long time ago.

He entered the morgue, he didn’t know why, but he did. And right where they left him was Keith, cold and lifeless. He was as still as before, resting peacefully on the cushions. He was paler than before. Lance pulled up a chair and sat next to him, he gazed at his face and how cold it looked. Yet even after everything he was still Keith, and to Lance he was still so beautiful. He leaned over to Keith and began to whisper.

“Mullethead.”

“Yo jerk.”

“Keith…?” Lance swallowed and continued, “Everyone, and I mean everyone is blaming themselves. They all think, ‘oh no, I killed Keith. It’s all my fault.’ But I heard it, I saw it. I saw you go down. And I saw how you tried to protect Pidge. That was all you man, you fought and you fell. Simple as that.” He stopped for a minute then said “But I’m no different, I can’t help blaming myself too. I can’t stop thinking if only I was a little faster, a little stronger, maybe I could have stopped this. There’s always that maybe you know? That shred of doubt.”

“Keith, I’m sorry,” Lance said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. Please don’t curse and haunt me forever.” His snide comment echoed through the room and did nothing. No reaction “That’s was stupid sorry… “ He was looked down briefly then mumbled “Hey Keith… Keith… I need to tell you something… I should have told you a long time ago, but I was too stubborn and look where it got me. I… I do remember our bonding moment. I was tired and embarrassed, but I remembered. That was really sweet and charming of you man.”

“Keith, I also never really hated you,” Lance swallowed “I know I was just playing rival with you and instigating you for no reason, but I was honestly jealous of you. And that you were so good at everything you did. I know I got into the Garrison’s fighter pilot program just by the skin of my teeth cause you dropped out, and Iverson kept comparing me to dropout Keith, I guess I just threw all that anger and frustration out at you. I really shouldn’t have, when I realized now how awesome you are. You’re so cool dude, but you’re also a major dork. I wish…” Lance was choking on his own words “I wish I got to know you more. I’m sorry for being such an idiot, I-uh-“ 

Tears were beginning to stream down his face as Lance threw his face on Keith chest “I want to get to know you more! I want to spend time with you and laugh, and joke around! I wanted to train together and have stupid goo dinner again! I miss you so much, I’m sorry…!” His hair was tossing against Keith’s chest and his face was smooshed on his clothes “I just- I can’t- Please Keith.” He pulled up his face and was lacing his fingers through Keith hair “Please come back, I can’t *hic* I don’t want you to go… Please…”

He leaned over Keith’s face with tears streaming down his cheeks, he was sure he looked hideous, but he didn’t care “Keith I’m sorry, so sorry. Please don’t go… I need you, we need you. No, I want you to come back, please…! I can’t bare for you to be gone…” He pulled himself up his face above Keith’s “Please, I didn’t get to say everything I need to say to you… Don’t leave me…! Please… Keith.” 

He kissed Keith on top his head, but as soon as he did he choked up on his tears again and pulled back to sob into his chest. So many tears were pouring out, that he could hardly breath. He couldn’t see because his eyes were so blurry and nose was beginning to get stuffy, but the aching pains in his chest were becoming unbearable. He didn’t want to let go, not jut yet, so he continued to cry into Keith’s chest.

As he cried he felt pressure between his shoulders. A hand was there, he was sure someone caught him sobbing on Keith’s dead body, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull himself away just yet. But when he did have the strength he looked behind his right shoulder ready to be scolded, shamed, or maybe comforted by one of his teammates, but no one was there. He then he turned to the left to see Keith’s arm lifted up with his hand pressed against Lance’s shoulder. Lance froze for a moment until he saw movement in the corner of his eye. 

Keith stirred and his eyebrows knitted as one eye slowly began to open up. Lance gasped and stared in amazement as Keith began to move. He couldn’t believe it, and was afraid to look away as if this was just his imagination. Keith’s eyes fluttered up as they looked towards Lance. His mouth opened, speaking in a voice Lance thought he’d never hear again “Lance… what…happened…?”

“Keith?” Lance mumbled in a small whisper at first, shocked at what he was seeing, until realization hit him “KEITH! YOU’RE AWAKE!”

“Not… so loud…” Keith gasped, but then something twitched in his chest. And without a moment’s notice Keith’s voice filled the room with a horrendous scream. Lance was shocked at this sudden development, suddenly Keith waking up from being dead, to him now screaming in agony. But eventually Lance snapped out of his trance to see Keith’s body flailing painfully off his cushions and onto the floor. Lance rushed to him to see him gasping and writhing in pain, he tried to hold him but Keith’s body would jerk out of his arms and onto the floor. He moaned and gasped for air, and his nails were digging in the ground as his body knocked things over.

Lance at this point in time had no idea what to do, but knew he needed help. He hated to leave Keith in this terrifying state, but he’d have to if he were to get help. 

“Keith! I’ll be back! I’m going to get help! Hold on! “ But all he got in response was howls of agony as Lance quickly darted out of the room. He ran through the halls with Keith’s painful screams behind him as he tried to search for help.

Lance never felt so fast as he dashed and sprinted through the halls looking for someone at max speed. His breath was becoming rugged, but he wasn’t going to wait for a second, he was getting Keith help. He ran past the kitchen, the training deck, and was about to past Allura’s room when he saw Coran leaving it “CORAN!”

Coran was a bit startled by the breathless Lance who almost ran into him. He didn’t expect to see Lance so lively so soon “Lance, what-what happened-?”

Lance was wheezing and coughing, until he finally managed to say “It’s-Keith!”

Coran didn’t waste a second and they both began sprinting through the halls together. Lance somehow managed to pick up more energy along the way and out ran Coran as he literally jumped through the morgue doors with Keith gasping and wheezing on the floor. When he got there he immediately leaned over him, rolling him over to see a shade of purple spreading across his skin. When he tried to open his eyes Lance saw glints of gold crack between the eyelids. 

Somehow it was happening, Keith’s Galra genes were finally showing. But why?

Coran reached him soon after to see the messy affair with his face reacting with a mix of shock, relief, and determination. He took immediate action and started giving Lance instructions “We’re carrying him to the nearest healing pods, there’s one next doors, take his arms, I got his legs!” Lance did as he was instructed and helped carry Keith out of the morgue and into an emergency healing pod that was placed in the next room over. It wasn’t like the other healing pods; this one was quickly filled with a goopy fluid and had no cover. They placed Keith in there while he was still struggling like a crazy animal, and Coran began pressing all sorts of buttons and levers.

“Coran…?”

“No worries,” he expelled “We have to sedate him first then we’ll let this girl work her magic!” The goop glowed up which triggered Keith to begin to calm down. He relaxed, but that didn’t stop the shade of purple from spreading.

Coran opened Keith’s uniformed shirt to find that the bullet wound had already some how healed up. He ran some diagnostics to find no other damage inside Keith’s body, just that his molecular structure was transforming into one similar to a Galra’s. 

As Lance watched them both, he stood their helplessly and then asked Coran “How is this possible?”

“I can’t say,” Coran muttered, his face looking more serious than Lance had ever seen it “I don’t understand what variables could have killed him, but him somehow turning purple changed him back? It doesn’t make any sense, unless…”

“Unless?” Lance raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Unless that projectile that sentry shot into wasn’t a normal laser blast,” Coran answered.

“Why would it be any different?” Lance wondered.

“Well maybe those sentries weren’t trying to just stop us from hacking their system,” Coran’s moustache wiggled “Maybe they were also trying to target a certain paladin in particular.”

“That can’t be…” Lance whispered under his breath “No way… did the Galra know…?”

Suddenly there was a jerk of movement in the corner of his eye and he saw Keith stir. Lance leaned over him with concern written all over his face as he was watching Keith slowly opens his eyes “Where… am I…?”

“You’re in a room next to-well-the morgue,” Lance explained slowly “It’s an emergency pod room I think. For I think special circumstances?”

“Special circumstances…” Keith sighed “Like what…?”

“Coming back from the dead,” Lance answered bluntly, and as he said it he swallowed the fact that Keith literally rose from the dead. The dude was dead not just several minutes ago, advanced space technology confirmed that. Dude could be a zombie, Lance thought, but tried to probe that fear away from him.

But after that train of thought completed his eyes focused on Keith who looked wide awake and stunned. He finally managed to speak and it was in a frightful, small voice “I…died?”

“Y-Yeah,” Lance stuttered, seeing such an alarmed look on Keith face made him wonder if he should have worded it better, or gave him a hint of preparation.

“How?”

Lance didn’t want to answer that; no he didn’t want to remember. The sentry getting to Keith, the sound of the blast that echoed out all the other sound in the room, how time froze as Keith stumbled away, face absolutely lost. Lance remembered seeing fear in those violet eyes as all light disappeared from them. He remembered the way he lost his footing and began to fall: fall and never get up. 

Until now that is. Until hours later and not nearly enough time for mourning or recovering from the whole episode. But relief had filled his heart, because now Keith is some how miraculously back and okay, a little purple, but he didn’t care. But Keith needed to know, what happened. But to say it in words right away will hurt so he instead asked, “What... do you remember?”

“I remember the mission,” Keith answered “The sentries flooding in, Pidge hacking with her computer, you and I were fighting, but somewhere along the way it goes black. Is that when…?”

He deserves to know, Lance thought, so he opened his mouth and explained. He said every last detail, except when he remembered it he kept out the part about the kiss. He almost forgot about that, but now he remembers how embarrassing that was, so he’d rather not tell. Jesus, it’s like Snow White or something. Keith dies and Lance woke him up with a kiss, no way.

Keith listened in awe, but also with timid nervousness, wondering what had brought him back. He wondered what consequences could follow “God, there’s got to be a catch right? That’s how these things usually work right? What am I going to turn into? A Space Zombie? A Space Vampire? …I feel sick.”

Lance rubbed his back comforting saying, “Man don’t say zombie, that’s too freaky. Also your mullet makes you too ugly to become a vampire, so that’s a no, no.” Lance bit the top of his lip as he looked up saying “Maybe a Space Cat.”

“What…? There isn’t anything-“ Keith was confused at first until he felt a flickering on his head. Something was flapping on his head, he caught them roughly, but it also hurt to catch them. He felt them up than realized what they were, they were animal ears. No, not just animal ears, they were Galra ears “No, no, no, no, no!”

“What, they’re really cute,” Lance snickered amusingly.

“Is my face purple too?” Keith panicked “How about my eyes, are they yellow? No, no, why is this happening?!”

“Keith chill,” Lance tried to calm him down “Listen, only part of your face it purple, like small purple freckles. Your hair is kind of, more purple. Uh, and your eyes are still normal, except when you blink I think I’m seeing purple, not sure.”

“Oh, actually I wanted to try something about that!” Coran exclaimed suddenly making the two jump. He swung to the side dimming the lights until Lance noticed that in the dark Keith’s eyes glowed gold. Whoa, that’s really cool. Coran said, “Galra eyes glow very vividly in the dark, since you’re part Galra and we saw tints of gold so I assumed!” 

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Keith was beginning to really freak out “If the others see me like, what’ll they think?! Allura, she took forever to accept me last time, but what’ll she think now? Wait, so does anyone know I’m back-?”

“Uh, no. Just us-“

“Nooooo!” Keith muffled his scream in the palm of his hands “I-I didn’t look like a monster before, but now they’ll surely-they’ll surely-“

Oh wow, Lance didn’t realized how self-conscious and worried Keith was about his Galra genes. There was a constant fretting panic in his eyes as he mumbled out worrying regrets. Lance had to find a way to calm this mess down before his little heart freaks out too much from panic “Whoa, whoa, Keith. Listen dude, right now you just came back from the dead. No one is going to be pissed that you suddenly look like a purple cat, they’ll be more relieved to see you alive than anything. You don’t have to freak out about it, it’s okay.”

Keith looked at him, with those big violet eyes. Lance felt something prick at his heart cause he could have sworn those eyes were getting watery. Keith shifted in that healing pod to him and asked “You-you think so?”

Before Lance could actually answer Coran swung around on his heel and stepped to Keith, bending a knee down to his level “Keith, if I may,” his voice was soft and nice “I for one am very happy that you’ve come back. I’ve lost many friends and family in the past, I’m glad you haven’t joined them.” He rested a hand on Keith arm and said, “I’d like to say, welcome back.”

Keith ears perked up at that, as he felt overwhelmingly joyful. It was formal, but it was so warm Keith broke into a smile; one Lance thought he’d never get to see again. In fact, something stirred in him and started moving him, and before he knew it he leaned over Keith. Keith turned to see Lance hovering suddenly, and then even more suddenly Lance wrapped his long arms around him. Keith glanced to Lance as he could hear some muffled sniffling. 

“Lance?” Keith whispered.

“Welcome back!” Lance shouted as he held tighter “Welcome back mullethead!”

Keith sat there with Lance hugging him, but then surprisingly Coran came in for a hug too. So here Keith was being hugged, and all he could do was pat their backs awkwardly, cause this was certainly an unusual amount of hugs he was used to.

They pulled back as they brushed tears away and Keith was amazed to realize that they were happy he was back. He wondered if they mourned, or if they cried? But right now isn’t time for such silly questions.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Keith said comforting, “I’m here.” He took a finger to brush away one of Lance tears who broke into a big smile at that. He also held Coran’s shoulder in the most soothing way he knew how to “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not your fault,” Lance said, “If I was just fast enough-“

“Lance, if it isn’t even my fault then why are you blaming yourself?” Lance wondered that too as he broke into another smile. Just Keith’s voice, and him telling he didn’t screw up was doing wonders to the holes in his heart.

“How about we get you out of that pod now?” Coran suggested kindly. They both supported Keith as he tried getting up out of it, slipping a few times, but they managed.

He stood, dripping wet from the pod in that white Altean uniform, which Lance honestly didn’t mind, because he looked really good. It was tight on him in all the right places, which was weird for what’s suppose to be funeral clothes, and white surprisingly made him seem even more gorgeous. 

He was leaning on Lance for support and listened while Coran spoke of theories on all sorts of reasons why Keith has turned, but in the end he hadn’t figured it out. Keith listened as well as he tug onto Lance’s jacket for support, but that’s when Lance reacted “Oh hey, are you cold?” and before Keith could answer Lance pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around him tight, whilst gently pulling his long hair from the collar of the hood “There, don’t want you catching a cold after all that.”

Keith chuckled and leaned onto Lance again; they both felt calm and relaxed, leaning into each other. And the way Lance wrapped his arms around him made him never want to let go of Keith again. After few minutes when Keith had been out of the pod, clinging on Lance for stability, the door of the room slid open.

It was Shiro who had a look of worry on his face “Hey Lance, Coran did you guys move-“ His eyes fell on Keith. Purple alive Keith, Keith who was breathing, Keith was standing and… “Keith?” His voice was so small, so broken, and dry like he just finished crying. But Keith was here, he was alive, and-and he-

Shiro was trembling as his head fell as he strode over to Keith fairly quickly, pulling him in a tight embrace. He was big and muscular, Keith had gotten hugs from him before, so he was used to this type of hug. He rubbed Shiro’s back as he reciprocated the hug back. Shiro was mumbling and the big guy was actually crying. He was crying real, large tears. His voice broke and cracked as he tried to talk, but nothing came out except relieved sobs. He gripped on tighter than pulled Keith back as he looked at him, tears continuingly dripping from his eyes down his long cheeks.

He looked at him than glanced back and forth the room, his eyes looking for something and as he did he tried to speak “How-how-How are you-?”

“Alive?” Keith answered for him as Shiro squished his cheeks.

“U-huh,” Shiro nodded, sniffling loudly.

“We’re still trying to figure that,” Coran answered swiftly “If I can just figure the components of that laser blast we might get an answer.”

“How long have you-?”

“He’s been awake for about twenty minutes,” Lance explained, really it’s just been twenty minutes? It’s felt like this whole ordeal has been hours.

“Why didn’t you come and get me?” Shiro asked somewhat offended, holding Keith tighter to him now, giving Lance accusing eyes.

“I don’t-I don’t know!” Lance answered, also offended that he was being accused “He woke up all purple like and it was crazy, and I didn’t know what time it was okay and just-“

“Oh,” Shiro finally noticed his ears and asked, “Are these Galra?”

“Yeah,” Keith answered nonchalantly.

“And another thing-“

“Lance,” Keith mumbled, “It’s okay.” He gently pulled himself away from Shiro and steadily walked over to him “I need to say…” Keith pulled his hair back as he said “Thank you.” Lance was shook by such words as Keith continued, “For waking me up, for being near me when I was… you know. And also… for these.” Keith gestured to his ears “You were right.” Lance’s cheeks flared up with a bright red at this, but smiled.

“Of course, anytime,” Lance chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aGASP! How did this happen?! Stay tuned for the chapter I'm going at add a second after this one.


	4. When the puzzle pieces come together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's alive, he's alive... I thought I'd never get to talk to him again, to laugh with him, I'm so happy.

Pidge woke up to a shake on her shoulder; she pulled her glasses to her nose as her eyes adjusted to see Shiro in the dark. He had a large happy smile on his face, like he was humming with joy. Pidge blinked at him at first, curious on why he seemed so delighted. In fact her curiosity almost turned into anger and frustration as she remembered what happened the day before. How could he be smiling so easily and pleasantly at the moment, it didn’t make sense.

Shiro said in almost a gentle chuckle “Pidge wake up, you have to see something.”

“See something?” Pidge mumbled “Shiro wha-?”

“Come, get out of bed,” Shiro urged her with a cheer in his voice “You don’t have to get dressed, come on.” He slowly pulled her out of bed as she rubbed her eyes sourly.

“Shiro, it’s like five in the morning,” then she murmured, “This isn’t fair.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned to her, getting on one knee “I know, I know. But I promise it’ll be worth the trip. Come on.” 

They walked out of the room with Pidge stumbling behind him. The cold floor was beginning to wake her up, but she was still fairly groggy. The castle lights were making her eyes squinted as she was so tired and confused on why Shiro insisted on dragging her around. She wasn’t really paying attention to where they were going until they got there. She made him stop as they were closing up on the morgue and she stopped.

“Shiro no,” Pidge stated immediately “Whatever you’re going to show me I can’t-“

He glanced at her then at the morgue door, than shook his head “No not in there,” instead of stopping at the morgue entrance he stopped in front of a door before the morgue; she didn’t know where it goes.

As the door slid upwards Pidge’s eyes widened at what she saw. It was some sort of medical room, but it wasn’t the room that was important. Her eyes fell on two figures; one was Coran who had a big smile on his face. And the second figure who was leaning over, and looked like he was somewhat in pain was smiling endearingly to her. It was Keith, except he looked so much differently. It was him; but he had purple speckles over his skin, his hair looked like it was dyed with streaks of violet, and his ears were soft, fluffy, and pointy. 

She froze at first, and a noise choked in her throat. She didn’t know what to say, her mouth was hanging low as she stared at him. There was a thick silence in the room, but during this time Pidge wondered if this was all a dream. But he broke the silence once he opened his mouth “Pidge, are you okay?”

Was she okay? Was SHE okay? Was he really asking her that, if she was okay? She stared at him for a little bit longer and finally managed to whimper out “Of course I’m okay emo.”

There was relief on his face as his smile grew, at the moment, in the heat of that time it was dazzling and brought Pidge to tears as she ran to him. She collided into him, hugging him tightly, afraid to let go. But as she shoved into him she could hear a gasp, making her pull back “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“No it’s okay,” Keith assured her as he rested a hand on her head “I’m fine.”

“But how?” Pidge questioned “How are you here? How are you awake? Why-“

“Calm down Pidge,” Shiro rested a hand on her shoulder “We haven’t been able to figure it out either.”

She looked at him with eyes filled with relief, but confusion. But she felt happy as she tugged onto his clothes. Pidge mumbled “I thought-I thought it was my f-“

“It’s not your fault,” Keith reassured her, he was getting better at it after Shiro “I was reckless, but I’m pretty surprised that I’m alive too. I thought surely I…” He trailed off, but Shiro placed his prosthetic hand on his shoulder, rubbing his thumb on his deltoid.

“Let’s just be happy that we’re extremely lucky,” Shiro said, than his face turned stern as he said “This was an experience we all have to learn from, but right now let’s be happy over this little miracle.”

“Wait!” Pidge finally noticed as she adjusted her glasses “Are those Galra ears?”

“I’m pretty sure,” Keith answered nervously.

“When did you sprout those bad boys?” Pidge questioned curiously as she tried reaching for them “There so tiny and wow!”

“They just suddenly came around when I was waking up,” Keith explained trying to block Pidge’s grabby hands “I’m not too sure how…” 

“Do they affect your hearing differently?” Pidge wondered letting her science side show “Can you hear from long distances?”

“Pidge I don’t know,” Keith chuckled somewhat amused that she was regaining her footing “You’ll have to find out for me Einstein.”

“I think I have a more concrete theory now on all of this,” Coran gestured to all of Keith as this.

“What is it Coran?” Shiro asked quickly.

“I checked previous scans on your cartilage tissue and found trace remains of pure quintessence,” Coran stated “That’s only a fraction of what could have brought you back, but raw quintessence when concentrated hard enough can create a nasty beam of light aka a laser. But it seems that the quintessence in this beam once blasted into your heart, it attached to your tissue, spreading residue through out your heart. So even though your heart was blasted and had a chunky hole in it, the quintessence preserved it at the last second so you would only be mostly dead.”

“Mostly dead?” Pidge repeated skeptically.

“Yes,” Coran explained “That blast would have killed you if it wasn’t for the quintessence and another unknown factor helped freeze your heart and technically all body functions at the last moment. And once the blast goes through the raw quintessence and unknown chemical G is what I’m going to call it, started healing you immediately.”

“Chemical G?” Shiro wondered.

“G stands for Galra,” Coran whistled proudly but then shyly looked at Keith than retorted “Or it could stand for Great, or Generous, or Gally, it’s an experimental title.”

“So the quintessence and chemical G was my life support,” Keith thought aloud and wondered “Why would the Galra Sentries have that in their lasers if it heals the enemy?”

“Perhaps to immobilize them for a moment so they can be captured or…” Coran tapped his check quickly and said, “It could really have to do with your Galra genes. I doubt the Galra want any friendly fire on their side, so perhaps they used this method so if one of their own kind gets hit…”

“They’ll survive,” Pidge finished with a gasp “That’s a really revolutionary way of thinking. I can’t believe the Galra came up with that.”

“Now it’s only a theory Number 5,” Coran hummed “We can’t be too sure, but that’s my favorite so far.”

“Well we’ll have to wait and see,” Shiro.

-

 

“Hunk, buddy!” Lance whispered as he patted his friend’s face awake. Hunk had gone and placed himself into a foo goo coma and did not want to get up.

“Lance…” Hunk groaned, “Not right now dude, I’m trying to raise my blood sugar.” 

“Well you’re not going to accomplish that with food goo so come on!” Lance was trying every which way to get this big guy up, but it was no good with these long noodle arms. He pushed and pulled and grunted with Hunk being no help, but it was all to no avail “Hunk…come on…I got to show you something like right now so get up.”

“Whatever it is, it can wait for a few days?” Hunk flopped on his side now, making it even harder to pull him up, not that Lance was getting any success anyways.

“Come on dude, it’s a really cool thing so get your big butt up,” Lance tried putting his back into it, but he was beginning to be squished by Hunk instead.

“Dude, how are you so energized right now?” Hunk sighed, “I never want to get up again.”

“Ah man, please don’t say that,” Lance wheezed, “I promise it’ll be a really cool surprise.”

“Dude, I won’t get up for any surprises,” Hunk mumbled “You need to woo me better than that to get me off these stubby legs.”

Lance gasped than sighed as he collapsed on Hunk’s stomach with Hunk patting the back of his head. He sighed a few more times before he pulled himself up saying “But I want it to be a surprise.”

“Mhm.”

Lance pouted for a second than stared at Hunk for a little longer finally saying, “Keith’s alive.”

There was silence for a second than Hunk said blankly “What?”

“You heard me,” Lance scoffed, but at this Hunk got up so abruptly that it tossed Lance to the cabinet, hitting the back of his head. 

Before he could recover Hunk grabbed Lance’s arms, shaking him on repeat with a frantic look in his eyes. He said in a very high and panicked voiced “Lance what’re you saying?! What does that even mean?! Dude, don’t play me like this, like what?!”

“Hunk calm down!” Lance gasped dizzily “I’m saying he’s awake, and walking around and stuff!”

“Are you serious?” Hunk asked with a shake in his voice as he gripped tighter to Lance’s arms.

“Ow, ow, ow, yes, I’m super serious!” Lance screeched, “I’m more serious than Sirius Black okay! He’s okay, he’s okay!’

“He’s okay?” Hunk asked.

“Yes!”

“He’s alive?”

“Yeah, dude!” Lance yelled, “Hunk I love you man but your iron grip is going to rip my arms off!”

“What are we standing here for?!” Hunk shouted as he let go of Lance and started stumbling out of the kitchen “Where is he?! Where?!”

“Ow…ugh…” Lance glanced to his left and pointed “That way.”

“Come on!” Hunk dragged Lance with him as they rushed to the room. The door slid open and there he was, surrounded by Pidge and Shiro as Coran rambled. They looked up to see the two and before they could say anything Hunk burst out crying and collided into all three of them. He squeezed Keith out of breath, while Pidge and Shiro were trying to slow him down reminding him that Keith was just dead like a minute ago “Oh my god! Oh my god!” He patted Keith up and down and said, “You’re here, you’re okay!” Then he burst into tears again. But this time he brought Keith into a more gentle hug and the rest of the team and dear old Coran all came together. Each one of them squeezing Keith softly with Keith sighing softly and feeling very warm with everyone nearby.

He not only felt their body heat, but felt warm from inside his chest too. They all cared. They were all there for him, Galra or not and that really touched his heart.

Hunk pulled Keith up to him by grabbing his shoulders and saying “Dude you’re purple!”

Lance called from behind laughing “Ha! Get with the program dude!”

They laughed and cried and stayed there, warm and happy. Keith finally began to feel the relief of not dying as well, the feeling that he’s got a second chance, and he’s so happy about that.

And then the door slid open again to face a bewildered princess with her five mice “Coran I was wondering if….”

She stared at them for a moment than saw Keith in the center. She was about to say something, but then stopped, she stood there frozen and quiet. Suddenly then she smiled “Welcome back Keith.”

She froze there for a while, until Keith said “Thank you?”

But at those words she melted, she fanned herself, and you could see the heat of tears rising to her face. She looked relieved and partially confused as well, but that didn’t stop her dashing over to the rest of them. And as she rushed Allura suddenly had tears streaming from her cheeks too. She collided into Keith’s chest as she muttered hundreds of what could have been apologizes or relief comments, it didn’t matter, because they were all there, safe and sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything ends well on a happy note... or does it? I think we should make these boys fall in love don't you?


	5. Hanging up the puzzle for viewing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is beginning to be overwhelmed by everyone babying him, and I want to try to bring things back to normal for him. Or... Maybe I'll start treading risky territory with him instead. Is it getting hot in here?

The next several days after that there were an exceptional shift of attitude with the Paladins. Wherever Keith went, someone would usually always be there. And if they weren’t there right away, they’d be there running in, tripping over their own feet to get to him. At first it was kind of cute and amusing how everyone would always be around, asking if he’s okay and stuff, but after awhile it was beginning to get old and annoying. Now he knows he just died and was brought back to life with weird Galra quintessence, and that no one really knows about how his transformation happened, and his team would be somewhat worried after he became like this, but right now it seems to be kind of unnecessary.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay buddy? You do look a little bit pale,” Hunk would ask, “Maybe I should make something for you again.”

“No, Hunk, I told you I’m fine,” Keith would explain again “The paleness is just my face, don’t worry about it.”

“Keith, I went over the scans of your immune system and I found out that your temperature has been quite warm these past few days,” Coran stated “Perhaps you should have another check up, just in case.”

“Coran, I’ll be okay,” Keith would say trying to avoid what’ll be the tenth check up this week “It’s just warm in the castle that’s all.”

“Then I’ll turn the temperature down for you!” Allura would butt in with her biggest smile “If the systems in the castle are feeling off at all, just tell us immediately Keith, wouldn’t want you catching a cold now would we?”

“Um, thanks Allura, that’s really considerate,” Keith said trying to smile back “But really, I’m probably warm from training so much in the training room.”

“Keith!” Shiro would then overhear “You know you shouldn’t be moving around so much, you should be resting. If you overwork yourself in the training room who knows what will happen. Right now what you need is rest and a steady diet to keep you well rounded.”

“That’s a good idea, Shiro, but I think training would be good to get back into my old schedule,” Keith would answer, a bit intimidated by his stern dad voice “Besides I can’t lay in bed forever now can I?”

“But Keith!” Pidge would call out “You know you hardly got any rest before, you sleep like an insomniac monkey, you need to rest as much as possible. I checked out your immune system scans as well and I agree with Coran, you’re too warm. I don’t think it’s the temperature in the castle, I think you might need cooler meals maybe. Hunk you should make something for him.”

“On it!”

“No, guys I’m really okay,” Keith was getting tired at continually saying this “Please don’t worry about me.”

“You’re the red paladin, of course we’re going to worry about you,” Allura stated, than turned her attention quickly to Hunk “Hunk can you get me something too?”

“Yep!”

“Yes, if we don’t have you than there is no Voltron,” Shiro said, “So we need to make sure you’re well recuperated.”

“Shiro, I’m plenty recuperated.”

“I agree with Shiro, in fact I perfected this new daily routine where not only will you have all your hours of sleep, but I’ve scheduled perfect times when you should eat and go to the bathroom,” Pidge described her plan in firm detail with everyone nodding their heads in agreement. Now they kept talking and talking, more and more, hovering over Keith, overwhelming him. It was getting hot, and his new Galra ears were flicking in irritation at every raised voice or interruption. It was getting loud and unbearable, and after who knows how long Keith snapped.

“Ahhhhhhh, Shhhhuuuuuuttt uuuuuppppp!!!!!!!” He screamed as he jumped out of his chair and made a break for the door. The door slid open quickly for him to almost slam into Lance who was returning from the bathroom. Keith halted on his heels, startling Lance as well, but as Lance froze in surprise Keith saw it as an opportunity to book it. 

Lance was left quite bewildered at the sudden action and turned back to the others going “What was all that about?!”

“He ran away?” Pidge wondered, “Did we-“

“Did you guys finally drive him nuts?!” Lance laughed, causing everyone to turn different shades of pink realizing they may have just been overwhelming the introverted Keith. Lance kept laughing for a while then chuckled “Maybe you aught to give the poor guy a breather.”

“Perhaps we did overwhelm him a bit…” Allura mumbled.

“A bit?” Making Lance snort, having Allura flush with embarrassment.

“Lance’s right,” Shiro sighed, “Even if we’re worried about him we should give Keith some space.”

“I’m surprised the guy actually lasted that long,” Pidge giggled “Considering we were around him every waking minute.”

Hunk laughed at this and said “Yeah we all just became his mom this week.”

After that everyone laughed, and while they laughed Lance slipped away from the rest of them following Keith wherever he went. And he knew exactly where he was; he was obviously in the room dedicated to Keith the most; the Training Room, duh.

As he got there he heard the clashing of swords and loud grunts and pants from beyond the door. For a moment, Lance felt an overwhelming wave of relief and gratitude wash over him. This has happened so many times after Keith came back, so many emotions cause of the littlest things. Like seeing him walk out of his room in the morning telling Lance he needs to wake up earlier, like when Lance spots him combing his fingers through his long mullet hair, like the random moments when he bursts out laughing when someone makes a silly joke. Lance thought he’d never hear or see these little Keith things again which made him at first overwhelming sad, than overwhelming happy when he remembers that these little things are never going to end because Keith is back now and everyone is going to make sure it stays that way. 

Lance sighed, letting his head rest on the cold metal wall as he continued to listen to the clinging of the blades. He let the sound overtake him as he waited outside the door. But after awhile the clashing stopped and then he heard nothing. He knew nothing was wrong, but he had a nervous feeling spinning around in his stomach anyways. So he went inside to investigate the noiseless room. When he went in he saw Keith had pulled up his black shirt to rub the sweat off his face as he held a bottle of water in one hand. Lance watched the reveal of his back and waist as Keith stood away from him; unaware he was there. But as he soon as he saw the revealed skin the moment was quickly over as Keith dropped his shirt and instinctively turned to where Lance was. Lance realized Keith’s hair was in a ponytail with his ears twitching underneath a few strands of hair. That was kind of hot.

When Keith noticed Lance, Lance waved to him but instead of getting a wave back Keith groaned instead “What?” he growled at Lance with slight irritation “Are you here to be all over me too?!”

“Uh, no,” Lance quickly answered “I just-“

“What?!” Keith snapped, clearly annoyed, not really at Lance particularly, but at everything.

“Maybe wanted to train too.”

“You, train?” Keith wondered aloud which may have sounded rude before if he knew he wasn’t being overwhelmed “Why? Just go hang out with Hunk instead.”

“Umm, no!” Lance stated firmly “I’d rather hang out with you.”

At this Keith dropped his mouth and stared straight at Lance with wide eyes. He looked confused, surprised, and taken back at this, he quickly adverted his eyes from Lance. When he turned around his hair were pulled back in a really cute way “Uh… why? If you’re trying to look out for me like everyone else then-“

“No, it’s not like that!” Lance somewhat yelled, his voice cracking, but then quickly cooled himself off, regaining his composure “Besides, this is you we’re talking about. I know you can take a few hits.”

“Oh?” Keith smirked at that and his shoulders relaxed “Then come on in.”

It’s not like Lance needed Keith’s permission to enter the Training Room, but when he was allowed to be nearby without sounding irritated Lance was kind of happy about that. He came in, tossing his jacket to his side, and as he did he thought he caught Keith staring at him, but instead Keith dipped his eyes away. Activating his bayard, he stood in a comfortable fighting position, waiting on Keith.

“Are you sure about this?” Keith asked warily “I mean, I have a short range weapon and yours is long so…”

“Watcha insinuating there Keith?” Lance couldn’t help to tease, which flustered Keith for a second.

“Sh-shut up, you idiot,” he muttered.

“Kidding, kidding,” Lance chuckled “Besides you won’t be able to get near me with that puny toothpick.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith growled, rising up to the challenge.

But Lance just shrugged his shoulders saying “Yeah.”

“Well then,” Keith swung his sword to his side “Guess I gotta prove you wrong.”

“You do that,” Lance smiled mischievously.

They stood plenty far apart, but once Lance raised his bayard to see through his scope, Keith was already darting forward. They don’t usually try to fight each other like this, but Lance didn’t want to waste time anymore. Lance was wondering if maybe, maybe, he should stop avoiding Keith with this cheap rivalry and just try to get the know the dude more. After all, the realization has finally sunk in that they might not have much time to. 

As Keith pulled forward, Lance began firing, trying to aim for the wider area on Keith’s body; his chest. He fired, and fired, with Keith’s sword grazing the bullets, deflecting them at crucial moments. Keith tries to get close to unarm Lance with his sword, but Lance doesn’t stick to one place. He’s learned to roll around as a defensive measure over the months of training, and he wasn’t going to let Keith have the pleasure of beating him today. 

Everyone seems to be babying him too much, so Lance thought perhaps it would be better to let Keith get back into his groove of things. To help him reach normalcy.

Lance darted to the side as Keith charged him, and pulled himself down when Keith tried to swing at him. He was proud to say that he had gotten a lot better at maneuvering than before. And the way he saw the glint in Keith’s eyes, it seemed he was enjoying himself too. To throw himself out there instead of being coddled by others, now that was Keith.

Lance blasted another few rounds with Keith dodging the blasts like he was dancing; it was almost mesmerizing. He was so well balanced and precise while fighting, Lance wondered how he almost let such a perfect person slip away from him. Suddenly Keith did some sick spin as he clashed his sword with Lance’s rifle. Lance was a bit startled at first and knew that he wasn’t really a close combat sort of guy, but he wasn’t going to back down now. He was able to catch his feet as he held his ground, and let Keith push forward a little until he found the right moment and threw his weight forward. Lance pushed on Keith, having him yelp as he pushed him down. He pushed his deactivated bayard so it would hook onto Keith’s and he swung the boy’s sword out of his grasp, across the floor.

Lance then held his bayard to Keith with a big smirk across his lips. Lance cooed, “Finally beat you.”

They were quiet for a moment, until Keith snorted than laughed; his laugh has always been contagious so Lance found himself cracking up too. They chuckled and snickered as tears began to form on the sides of their eyes. Keith sighed and said “Lance.”

“Mm?” 

“Thanks,” Lance looked down at Keith to see him smiling, that bright smile that really made him weak in the knees. He felt that maybe his knees would actually cave in this time, but instead he realized they were already on the ground. And then he found that he was above Keith, straddled to his waist. Their position was pretty inappropriate, Lance was now thinking.

He couldn’t contain his blush, so he looked away, until he felt Keith begin to rise underneath him. He softly grabbed Lance’s arm asking him “Hey, are you alright?”

“Uh-yeah,” Lance quickly pulled himself off of Keith and he could have sworn Keith looked almost surprised. Lance chose to sit next to him instead and continued to advert his eyes “I’m glad that worked.”

“What?” Keith had that blank look; Lance could have sworn he saw a big dorky question mark above his head.

“It’s just you…” Lance pulled his legs in as he told Keith “You just looked really overwhelmed lately.” Lance began twiddling his thumbs as he said, “Everyone’s been all over you, giving you so much attention and I-“

“Heh, jealous?” Keith interrupted with a chuckle.

“Ah, no!” Lance corrected defensively “I saw how they were all over you, you just didn’t seem to like it. And after you came back from the dead and all, it’s seems that you haven’t had a chance to just be yourself.” Keith blinked as Lance continued a little bit more with a sly smile spread across his lips “You know, you’re old emo self.”

“Ah!” Keith punched him on the shoulder roughly as Lance laughed, “I’m not emo!”

“You are too!” Lance giggled “With your emo gloves, and decked out in black.”

“I wear red!” Keith countered.

“Yeah, that ugly sweater can really contradict everything I said,” Lance mocked.

“It’s not ugly!”

“Oh yeah, what era did you get it from?” Lance was blocking Keith’s fists now “Must be the same era you got that mullet of yours.”

“It’s just long!” Keith hissed, swinging at Lance again “Besides at least I act like a teenager, you act like you’re ten.”

“On a scale to one to ten, that’s perfect,” Lance smoothly pulled out.

But Keith quickly retorted “Yeah, on the ph scale, because you’re basic.”

They were quiet for a second, letting Keith’s words sink in when it finally snapped in Lance’s mind, having him holler the biggest laugh he’s felt in ages. He laughed and laughed, until his sides hurt, god that was a good one! After what felt like a few minutes of endless laughter and fits of giggles, he was finally able to pull himself and say “Ph-scale?! * snort * God, where-ha! Where did you get that one mullet?”

“I don’t know,” Keith was smiling a lot, and god it was cute. It was even cuter with those ears that kept flickering at every movement. He watched Keith for a moment as he smiled and heard him say, “I was overwhelmed.” Lance was listening, unable to look away from Keith “I’m usually in the background and stuff, usually people don’t pay attention to me, and usually I don’t have much to say. Especially in big crowds and stuff. Being crowded around is kind of suffocating.”

Lance asked, “I thought you’d be used to the spotlight. Especially at the Garrison.”

“At the Garrison? What made you think that?” Keith tilted his head in confusion.

“Uh, because you were the star student duh!” Lance stood up as he flailed his arms and hands about in large gestures “Everyone, the students, the teachers, always talked about the Great pilot Keith Kogane! How he was so talented and knew what to do every time, even under pressure! How he never crashed a simulator, and got the best grades out of the entire class! How every girl wants to date Keith Kogane! How mysterious and alluring he is, that all the girls swoon when he walks by! That he’s going to be the best student to come out of the school for years and that’s he’s going to go places! He’s going to fly out of our solar system and see new things! He’s going to be the very best!”

There was silence there for a second at Keith watched Lance’s eyes seem to dart around the room for a moment, until his landed on him. Those lovely blue eyes were for some reason always looking at him, and Lance seemed to be unaware of it.

“That you’re better than every student, every student,” Lance seemed like he finally quieted down as he stared down at Keith, there was pain reflected on his face “So I don’t get it, how you don’t…”

“I-“ Lance seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in as Keith began to answer “I never… knew people talked like that behind my back. I thought the reason no one ever approached me because they were scared of me or something. And that thought made me scared to approach anyone else, let alone make friends.”

“Why would they be afraid of you?” Lance questioned curiously.

“Because… I used to get into a lot of fights when I was younger, over stupid things,” Keith responded “And I thought maybe it would follow me into the Garrison. That I’d get into more fights again, or that it was obvious I was some bratty punk before coming there. It made me feel so out of place over there. I think if I went back I’d still feel out of place there.”

“Well!” Lance plopped himself back down and said, “That isn’t true at all, everyone liked you.”

“Even you?”

“Eh?”

“Nothing!”

“Wait what did you say?!”

“I didn’t say anything I swear!”

“No, you did, what did you-“

“Lance stop it, what are you-?” Lance instinctively grabbed Keith’s hand as he looked at him. He didn’t let him pull away, instead Lance stared him down instead.

“What did you say?” he asked coolly, holding onto Keith’s hand.

“I was-“ Keith breathed in deep, there seemed to be red on his cheeks “I was wondering if you did too?”

“I what?”

“You… that you liked me too,” Keith adverted his eyes, adding “Like everyone else?”

“Oh?” Lance’s face became a heated red and he hoped his hands weren’t sweaty “Um… yeah, of course! I mean, like I said- Everyone liked you! So duh! Hahaha! Uh… But!” Keith’s eyes snapped towards his, god they were so pretty and so dark. Like they could swallow you whole “My sort of ‘like’ was like, Oh I’d like to have him as a rival or whatever. And stuff. I don’t think my ‘like’ could measure up to…”

“Lance,” Keith’s eyes were such a deep and dark violet, they were hypnotizing “It’s okay.”

“Yeah,” Lance sighed, as his hand tightened on Keith’s. His eyes glanced up to Keith’s fluffy ears. Those were a new sort of cute that Lance’s heart will have to get used to. They flickered around at sudden movement and things; they were just so cute “I-“

“Yeah?” there was some sort of softness in Keith’s voice.

“They’re really cute,” Lance mumbled “Can I…” He reached his hand towards Keith’s ear, but stopped for a go ahead.

“Yeah…” Keith rested the side of his head onto Lance’s long fingers. His eyes watched him, daring him to go.

Lance touched them, for the first time, and god they were soft. They were like cat ears, but bigger. The short hairs brushed against his fingers and he caressed them. They were almost fun to play with. He chuckled for a moment, until he glanced back at Keith. His eyes were lidded and a bit watery, he was taking long and deep sighs, as if he found this calming. So Lance began to take a risk to see if he could go further. 

He let his fingers smooth down the back of Keith’s head, letting them tangle in his hair. One finger tangled around his hair tie, letting it fall apart and onto the ground. His hair was then released and flowed across his hands. God, it was so soft and the sounds Keith was making as he sighed into Lance’s hands, it was kind of exciting. He gently traced his fingers through the soft locks, feeling around, until he got to the back of his neck and had a finger graze against Keith’s nape. Keith shivered in his hands and grabbed onto Lance’s shirt, as if he had to steady himself. Lance’s long fingers made delicate swirls against Keith’s skin as he felt the electricity go down Keith’s spine. 

Keith’s eyes were closed now as he sighed into Lance’s hands, feeling the hazel fingers dance across his neck. To him it felt almost enticing, almost arousing. Then he felt them trail from his neck, brushing his jaw, to then rest on his cheeks. He opened his eyes to see Lance who was watching him with such wonder and curiosity; it tightened his heart to see those blue eyes stare at him with such eagerness. 

Keith then trailed his fingers up across Lance’s chest, brushing the shirt on his fingers. He watched how Lance reacted to such pressures, his flinches, his shivers. He was really cute. Keith loved this, whatever it was. He finally rested his hands around Lance’s shoulders, and wow, not only was his chest really wide, but his shoulders were so broad. Keith couldn’t help but stare at how beautiful he was.

Lance’s eyes stared at him, those beautiful blue eyes and Keith could see them coming closer. Lance was leaning in, his face coming towards Keith’s ever so slowly. Keith was feeling his heart almost beating out of chest, a hint of electricity went through their veins as their noses touched. They were so close, both wanting something from the other, but neither could put their finger on what it is. 

Keith’s eyes flickered towards Lance’s and suddenly there was a loud sound. It tore them apart as they glanced up to see the alarm blaring. They were under attack. Breaking apart, already missing the warmth of each other they quickly grabbed their bayards and ran to the front deck.

It was a Galra attack, every paladin had to rush to their lion immediately. Once inside they blasted into the depths of space, dodging laser blasts and enemy fighter ships. The Galra thought that they could surprise them with ease, but obviously Voltron proved them wrong. It didn’t take long for the small fleet to be destroyed and as the last explosion boomed through the stars everyone began to cheer.

Suddenly, out of the corner of Keith’s eye he saw a random spare Fighter pilot ship zoom past them, trying to retreat.

“Shiro,” Keith called over the intercoms “We got a straggler.”

“Go after him, we can’t have him reporting back to command,” Shiro answered back.

“On it!” Keith called as he flew down to chase after the small fighter jet.

“Lance follow suit in case he needs back up,” Shiro ordered “We’ll clean up around here and report back to the princess.”

“Gotcha!” Lance said as he trailed after Keith, both now tailing the fighter jet. This one was a bit more slippery than the other ones, and was doing everything they could to steer them off, but the two paladins weren’t having it. They spun and danced around the stray ship, firing at it at every possible opening, and eventually Lance was the one to land the hit.

“Ah-yeah!” he cheered as the fighter jet blasted in the depths of space.

“Nice job Lance,” Keith congratulated “That one was a little difficult, let’s get back to the others now.”

“Hell yeah,” Lance chuckled, taking in account that bit of praise. As the soared back to the ship Lance thought back to that pretty intimate moment between them. Was there a chance, once they were alone to initiate a moment like that again?

“Hey Lance,” Keith said over the comms sparking back Lance’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“Um…” there was a small break in what Keith was about to say, but eventually “Would you um… want to go back to the training deck again after this?” Lance felt some sort of heat in the pit of his stomach begin to grow. These aren’t butterflies are they? “Just the two of us?” Okay, yep, definitely butterflies.

“Uh… yeah…yeah!” Lance said with more enthusiasm that earned a small amused chuckle from Keith as a response. Lance read the small invitation between the lines, and he decided, he’s not going to hold back anymore.

A felt a bit nervous with the heat in his stomach going to his chest beginning to grow more and more with anticipation, and he started tap on Blue’s handles. He could feel a noticeable amusement coming from her, like she was chuckling at him.

And he looked up in his cockpit like he could find her eyes and stare down at them “What?” But she didn’t react, in fact this teasing emotion she was giving off made him think if Red was doing the exact same thing to Keith. 

“Wait,” Keith said do over the comms pulling in Lance’s attention, his eyes seemed kind of narrow like he was looking at something “What is that?”

Suddenly there was a loud blare in both of their cockpits and Lance whipped his eye to look out his window to see a lot of objects coming fast their way. He paled as he saw a rain of asteroids heading there way at an incredible fast speed “RUN!” He told Keith who responded quickly to the commanded as they were trying to maneuver through the sudden way of meteorites soaring to them. 

They both were trying to dodge the masses of rocks and would slide though the open spaces that would only last seconds as the rocks comet everywhere. Keith was fantastically fast as he dodged the meteors, but for a split moment Lance saw an asteroid curving directly in Keith’s direction. Without saying anything he dashed to his side and slammed him out of the way. The asteroid hit Blue’s side having him crash into several other asteroids, he could hear Keith’s broken voice calling out to him. And suddenly everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit.


	6. A new game to put together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wake up, my head hurts, there is this blaring in my ears. I wonder if Keith is feeling this pain too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woahh, exams were too crazy. Sorry couldn't update for a while, but hey... I left you guys wanting more didn't I? :)

The smell of smoke overpowered Lance’s senses as his eyes slowly blinked to the blaring red light that kept trying to blind him every time he tried to open his eyes. As he was beginning to become more aware of his surrounding, a ring started to sting his exposed ears making him pull his head forward to his hands as he tried to block out this painful noise. His helmet seemed to be missing in all of the confusion as he tried to block out the terrible noise. As his eyes and ears began to adjust to his surroundings he realized that his alarms were going off everywhere in Blue and there was a smoke coming from somewhere inside. In a panic he searched her through their connection but she was unresponsive. 

Getting up quickly he suddenly lost his balance and sunk back into his seat holding his head again, but this time he brushed against something that dripped on his head. He pulled his hand back to see a red liquid staining on his glove and that’s when he noticed a small smear of blood on the console as well. Uh, oh, was what Lance thought in this hazy state of mind. In this bruised state he recollected where the first aid kit could have been. He remembered it was somewhere underneath his seat as he tried looking for it. 

When Lance found the kit he made a crude bandage on his head to stop the bleeding for now so he could look after Blue. Stumbling to where the smoke was coming from he saw in her stomach region that there were electrical circuits fizzing out of control, sparking a small flame in her wiring. Since the smoke was so thick he manually opened her jaw to let out as much of it as possible. With this he was able to breath more properly, and also took this moment of clarity to figure out where the toolbox Hunk made for all of them was. This time Lance had to find Blue’s health kit, but with the continuous bleeding seeping from his forehead it was getting difficult to focus where that could have been too.

He looked up apologetically to Blue as he tried to brainstorm on what to do; a moment hit him where he decided to dare back inside to rummage for any tool that made be able to help his dear space cat. He scavenged through every layer and drawer as the smoke dared to clog up his throat. He had to go back outside a few times to breath, but then would dart back in to find the toolbox Hunk talked about. After the fourth time he found it scattered to the floor as it seemed to have fallen out of where it originally was in the way back of Blue’s body. He grabbed it, took a fresh breath of air, and started to work on her wiring.

Thankfully since Hunk thinks of everything he found a tiny Altean version of a fire extinguisher that Coran eventually gave to Hunk during one of their first missions in the kitchens where Pidge read the numbers on their stove wrong and it started catching fire. Lance blasted the extinguisher that sprayed glittering purple foam everywhere to smoke out the fire at least. And once that was done he finished airing out the smoke and cleaning the spray off to get to work.  
As he was trying to connect wires together Blue started to regain consciousness and brush against Lance’s mind in an apologetic and almost embarrassed manner.

Lance chuckled “There’s nothing wrong girl, we did the best we could,” he brushed two wires together that sparked “It’s okay, I’m fine, we’re fine.” 

It took him a good long while, where Blue would assist him by nudging him to the right wires and Lance’s noticed that the sunlight outside was beginning to fade away. The sun had gone completely down as he finished what he thought was all he could do for now for her, and looked outside at the alien planet that they’ve landed on. It was fairly dark out, with only Blue illuminating the area they were in. He wondered how he can keep landing on these alien plants that come out of nowhere, and almost chuckled to himself. 

As he stood up he winced at the pain in his forehead, instinctively reaching to it. Blue brushed his mind with concern but he just responded, “I’m okay Blue, really. Might need some stitches though-“ But before he finished his thought he could feel Blue tense up with aggression as she seemed to have spot something outside their tiny little bubble. Lance’s eyes followed to where hers might be and he saw in the light that she shown off that there were creatures slinking in the woods on all fours.

Lance’s eyes widened to see some creatures with thick, tight, grey skin slink to the front with large mouths drooling at the sight of them. Lance’s thought at the moment that that was a lot of teeth, until it sunk on how big these things were. They were about the sixth the size of Blue, but her being out of commission didn’t put his mind at ease.

Their eyes were glowing vibrantly in the night’s darkness as they approached forward and Lance was almost sure that one of them were going to charge them when the Blue Lion suddenly shut her jaw tight, leaving him in the darkness too. He jumped to hear the creatures outside suddenly slamming their body weight onto her as they tried to dig their claws into her skin. He could hear their claws scratch against her, which echoed inside of her and Lance had a sinking feeling that they be strong enough to tear a hole of entry in her to reach him, or at least mess up more with her mechanics. 

He dashed in the darkness back to the cockpit trying to reach his seat when one of them slammed on her eye. Its shadow threw itself loudly on her window, which made Lance loose his balance for a moment as it shook her entire head. He fell on a panel but then pushed himself to dash to the controls. He tried pulling the handles, or type the buttons back to life, but with no avail.

“Come on, come on,” he gritted his teeth as the creatures shook Blue’s head again having him fall on chair. He kept trying over and over again, but nothing was turning on, and these jerks kept damaging her making it worse. After seeing he couldn’t turn the controls on at all he called to her rashly, but it may be the only way to get these things off her “Blue! Blue! Open up you’re hanger, I’ll shoot them off from inside! Blue!” She stayed silent as she seemed to be blantly ignoring his riskily demand; but he couldn’t think of anything else. If they keep at it, there might be nothing left of her. As he called her he tried to manually override her, but she locked him out of the system “Blue come on! They could break you even more; we can’t have that. You’re the Blue Lion! Without you we can’t form Voltron.” His heart was anxiously racing as he held his hand to it “Let me go out there, I can fend them off. Blue!”

She didn’t respond, in fact with his words there may have been a hint of anger to her wavelength which Lance didn’t realize he created. Those things kept banging and clawing at them for hours, deep in the night.

-

Lance didn’t know he fell asleep until his head bunked on a corner panel. He woke up curled up on the floor as he looked around he quickly remembered the events that happened last night. He dashed around inside her to check for any dents they could have made during their attack. He checked everywhere inside the Blue Lion, he didn’t see any dents or holes, but he saw that her eye was fairly cracked. He felt a churning amount of guilt wound in his stomach as he felt for her, but yet again she was unresponsive.

Since he was basically trapped in his own lion, our paladin decided to change his bandage again to see the previous one to be truly soaked red with dry blood. It was concerning and he was pretty sure he’ll need stitches, but at the moment he’ll have to make do. 

There were plenty of little snacks and drinks for him to eat, but he’ll probably need to see what the outside looks like. He can’t contact the others because he’s completely cut off, but he did wonder if Keith lost him in the asteroid field. Hell he wondered if Keith made it out unscathed, or was he in the same predicament as Lance was. Or… was it worse? 

Lance sighed exasperated at the thought of Keith being in danger again so soon after that previous incident. He crossed his finger that he got the worse of the bad luck and Keith may be looking with the others to find him. 

He pulled himself up and sat up in his seat as he narrowed his eyes to look beyond the cracked windows. He didn’t really look at the outside yesterday because he was too frantic about Blue, but sitting in her doing nothing made him on edge about what curiously lays outside. He prayed that there were no more of those gray things out there, but who knows, this is an alien planet. There could be worse.

As he sat there for a while, rubbing the sides of his bruised head he remembered that his helmet was still missing, so he decided that would be his short errand to find it. Looking yet again through all the nooks and crannies of the ship he pondered in bewilderment in where the thing could have gone. He padded around everywhere in a huff until his eyes glanced to something round stuck in the corner of the ceiling of the ship. He basically gasped in surprise, cause like how could something get stuck up there like that?! 

Lance climbed on a few panels and used all the length of his ridiculously long legs to reach the damn thing. He grabbed it a few times until he finally got a grasp on the rim, popping it out of the corner of the ceiling. Brushing it off of dust, he inspected it to see if there were any broken dents. But thankfully it was as shiny and round as could be.

He placed the helmet on and started calling any frequencies for anybody who would answer “Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there? Hello, it’s me Lance? Keith are you nearby?” All he got was static so he kept calling, and as he did he tried tapping into Blue’s system to open her mouth up “Keith? Buddy? Hello? Um… Allura? Shiro? Pidge? Hunk? Coran? Anyone? Hello castle? Other paladins? Voltron? It’s me Lance, do you read me?” There was nothing but white noise. There was no one picking him up and he felt a trickle of panic seep into his heart. 

Rubbing his face a bit, and slapping his cheeks, he still persevered “You guys? I need a pick up. I’m in pretty hostile territory. I landed on planet that doesn’t have the friendliest wildlife. They seem to come at night, but I don’t know. Blue’s pretty busted up, those things tried to break into her last night and well… she’s trapped me inside. I can’t get out, and she’s unresponsive and I don’t know what to do. If there is anyone out there, anyone at all, I need help. Paladins of Voltron, please hear me.”

He kept babbling over and over again, hoping some sort of message would get through to the others but he began to feel like he was just wasting his breath. He soon started to fiddle with Blue’s wires again, even though he knows it isn’t the politest thing to do to dear Blue, he needs to get out of here. Maybe there’s a civilization out there that can help him, but first things first he’s got to see the damage those things did to his lion.

He worked for a while until flicked a couple wires together and suddenly the doors slid open blinding him with sunlight. He fell backwards, but once he adjusted himself he blinked to see a jungle like landscape, a space jungle if you will.

Curiously taking a step outside he glanced around for those creatures then took a mental note of which wire was that so he could close that door again if he had to. He walked outside in awe at the brilliance of this planet. It was so rich with plant life that he felt immensely small next to any size of each piece of vegetation. He felt so amazed and excited yet terrified of how grand this world was. He could hear all sorts of animal noises in the distance, muffled by the array of exotic plants, echoing on their leaves. His feet want to press onwards inside to see what lay in store until he heard a spark of electricity behind him.   
Lance whipped his head around to see Blue; claw marks digging in her metal and dents spread across her body. She was immobile, still, cold, lifeless, and Lance could feel the color of excitement drain from his face. He immediately turned heel to her way as he rushed to her side, brushing his hands against her metal plates. Her body was dented at each touch and a pained look enveloped him. He whispered to her “Blue, oh god girl. It’s going to be okay Blue, you’re going to be okay. I promise. I won’t let those things get to you, I swear it. Oh my god.” He brushed lightly against one scratch mark but pulled away as if it hurt. He bit his lip in worry and frustration “I wish the others were here. We could get you fixed up at the castle right away. No problemo.”

He chuckled sadly for a moment but then rested the side of his face on her cold metal “We’re all alone Blue. Heck you’re out of commission.” He blinked with what felt like tears pulling at his eyes “I’m all alone.”

He stood there with her for a while, hoping his presence was comforting for the pain she must be going through. He muffle a few cries in her metal skin to let out some of the distress, but still felt incredibly lonely without her.

Pulling himself together Lance eventually started going around her using Hunk’s toolbox the best he could to fix her outer body. For hours she lay unresponsive as he worked away, but even after so long he felt like he hadn’t sealed much of the claw marks. He wondered if he was even helping. Lance glanced up at the sky to see the sun was still high up there so he started to survey the area. 

Maybe if he could get a feel of the planet’s layout there might be a way to protect Blue and keep him safe at the same time. If those things came only at night like he’s predicting, and they also only seemed to be interested in him then he might be able to protect Blue by not being around her. If the prey wasn’t being protected by a lion then maybe those things won’t attack the lion. It was risky, but he couldn’t let Blue get damaged anymore. 

He inspected the tree like vegetation that towered above him and decided to try and scale it without dying. He used blasts of his jet pack to start grabbing on to branches far above his head and grabbed every single one firmly; thankful for his long arms he’s been blessed with. As he was scaling the tree he started to become jealous of Pidge because he knew she could easily scale this with her grappling hook. Or maybe not now that he thought about it, last time she scaled something she got too cocky and the thing broke and fell on her helmet. Man that was a riot, even though Shiro scolded him and Hunk from laughing. He did glance to see Keith had a small smile playing on his lips too.

Maybe with good core strength he’d be able to beat Pidge’s grappling hook with climbing, suck it convenient weapon! As he pulled himself up higher he looked down and too his surprise his stomach didn’t churn with nervousness as he thought it would with him climbing higher than he ever had before. Instead he felt that old excitement before rush into his veins as he looked down below. He couldn’t think of ever doing something this risky on Earth; it felt so adventurous.   
He let his legs hang over the branch as he took a small break, looking about him. Wonderment taking him over, but he suddenly bit his lip when he saw Blue in her disarrayed state. And then that thought went to another and now he was thinking of things that he shouldn’t.

What if… no one could find them? If the two of them did manage to get off this planet how would they find the others? Should they find the others just yet, Keith might have still been caught in that asteroid field too. He may have fallen on this planet too. But Lance couldn’t think he could find him by himself, not with such little information and with such a dense planet of plants. He should find the others first and then they’ll find Keith. That is unless he’s already with them.

Lance could feel his brow furrow at the thought, but calmed himself down with a few long breaths, that is until another thought came to him. Keith could have been attacked too by those things last night. He would have tried to fight those things if Red was badly damaged. Lance’s stomach started to churn at the thought of those things…

He shook his head and told himself he can’t let his thoughts get to him. He had to find the others first, then with more people they can find Keith. Hopefully he’s nearby, but then he would have had answered his helmets calls, unless the forest’s density made that impossible.

Shaking himself off Lance started to climb again even high until he found an accumulation of branches that may be a good place for him to camp out for the night, far enough from Blue, high enough from those things. He’ll have to wait out and see if this plan will work, and if it doesn’t he’ll just jetpack back to her and lock himself in, so no sleeping for him.


	7. Inside pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wake up, look to the night sky, and see a phenomenon I could never imagine.

Lance passed out up at the top of the trees a couple hours later. He snored loudly as he rested up there while night fell on him. He was in a deep sleep for quite sometime until he heard some noises far below him. He nodded his head awake, and blinked lazily as he shook himself awake. He glanced down to follow the strange noises to see those things pacing around Blue who seemed still out of commission. From where he was he could tell they were sniffing and inspecting her in order to find him, but they were obviously coming up empty handed. One of them even traveled inside her opened mouth in order to search for Lance, but came out to the others with nothing. After their efforts came up fruitless, they dashed back out into the jungle and disappeared.

Lance grasped his hand in a fist in triumph as those things vanished into the cover of night. He was pretty proud of himself to have his plan work, they didn’t bother Blue and couldn’t find him, and so it was a win-win. But he wasn’t going to leave the top of this tree yet because he couldn’t tell if they were completely gone yet. But that’s when he remembered his helmet. 

He placed the thing on and tried scanning the area, but as far as the helmets could tell there was nothing alive in the area. But his instincts were still telling him to remain where he was just in case. Lance wanted to play things safe and wouldn’t like it if he became too rash, deciding to jump down just for something waiting for him to catch him in their mouth. 

So he remained up above, waiting patiently until he glanced up at the night sky to see a display that he’d never seen before; yet reminded him of a phenomenon on Earth. To his perception he witnessed what appeared to be Northern Lights dancing above his head. He sat in awe at the sight of seeing the vibrant colors dance above his head as they played across the skies. The lights consumed any light from the stars and took over the night sky as the shown orange, violet, red, and yellow. It was a breathtaking sight that had Lance stare at for quite some time, watching the colors flick back and forth, until he noticed a change in their movements. 

The lights began twisting and pulling not just into rays of light but also formations in the air. They were bending and taking shape across the colors until Lance realized they were taking a humanoid appearance. The lights formed into solid lights as they danced across the stars. They looked like people, people made of light, spirits, or maybe what some people on Earth would think ghost would look like. Ghosts made of beautiful, spectacular light. 

He watched them from his perch in amazement, as they seemed to dance with each other in a quiet harmony, it felt warm and familial. Lance couldn’t imagine more of an amazing sight, and he continued to watch them float in the sky until one of them seem to stop in their dance and appeared to be looking at him. They looked like they had glowing eyes that stared at him and were glowing a violet and orange pink. They stared at him for a moment and they froze completely while looking at each other, then others began to follow their eyes to where he was, stopping their dance in the night air. The glowing people looked at him, and he back at them in curiosity and wonder.

He felt a trickle of nervousness begin to overwhelm him as he had this staring contest with these people, but that’s when a thought came to him. Maybe this is the civilization on this planet. When he opened his mouth, about to call to them a wave of air blasted past him almost flinging him out of the safety of his nest. When he looked up to see what caused it, he saw a giant bird creature who was bigger than a house swoop to the glowing people trying to grab them in their talons. It swept through their crowd breaking their numbers apart as they panicked to dodge its claws. 

The bird soared through the air with feathers as dark as the sky, but eyes as bright as the moon. Lance was shocked at this change in pace as he watched the glowing people be broken apart by this massive bird of death. It swooped around in a circle as it tried to pick off the lights, but the lights acted quickly, detransforming from a humanoid form back into rays of light as they flew away from the mighty bird that chased them. The bird tried to chase some of them that tried to go through the plants but the vegetation was so dense that the enormous bird couldn’t fit through. Its talon reached far to grab the glowing people and Lance could see from his perch that it managed to nick one of them that stumbled in the air and fell to the ground. 

Lance watched as the bird tried to grab for the light as it transformed back into a person trying to crawl away. The bird was going to take a swipe, crushing the poor thing and that’s when Lance reacted. He pulled out his blaster and fired at the creature of darkness. It hit its back and as it did Lance had the realization dawn on him that he gave away his hiding place. The bird quickly whipped its head to where Lance was and charged after him. He responded quickly and jumped out of his spot as the bird crashed into it. He soared down as he used his jet pack at certain brief intervals to steady his landing. He glanced up to see the injured glowing person be picked up by others of its kind as they quickly flew away.

He felt a pleasant relief over him that was quickly thrown out the window when he could hear the bird going after him. He jet packed as quickly as he could, dodging the swipes the bird tried to do to claw him out of the air. But he managed to safely reach the inside of Blue as he saw the bird land on the ground behind him. He got to the panel on the floor and as he reached it he glanced up to see the bird charge him. As it dashed to him eyes filled with fury he grabbed the right wires, flicked them together and Blue shut her mouth on the image of the gigantic beast. But he could still here its claws colliding in the ground and quickly felt Blue’s body be completely knocked to the side as he fell on the wall. 

That’s when a realization kicked in that this thing is a lot worst than those grey things attacking, thinking Blue doesn’t have a chance and right when he thought the bird was going to attack her again he heard it screech in anger. It screamed for a moment then he could hear its feathers slap across the ground as it soared into the night sky. 

Lance panted in confusion as he remained where he was for a moment, but eventually found the courage to peek outside. He open Blue’s jaw and slowly crept outside to see a barrier alit around them. He gasped, and then a smile grew on his lips as he cheered Blue on “Way to go girl! Aw yeah!” he threw a fist in triumph and suddenly could feel her presence again. She was awake, just barely, but still awake none the less. 

-

Lance spent most of next day working on Blue as she had her particle barrier raised around them to keep them safe and sound. Lance wasn’t sure that he’d be able to fix her up today completely, but he was making good progress, and it helped that he wasn’t alone anymore too. Her encouraging him on really calmed him down and cleared his head as he worked on her dents and scratch marks morning to noon. When the sun was high above them, Lance was melding a giant claw mark on her side when he heard loud yells on the other side deep in the forest. He dropped his tools and quickly climbed over to Blue’s other side to hear the yelling deep in the jungle.

He strained his neck to listen to where the yelling was coming from, and could hear loud crashing that was coming with it. He turned to Blue really quick saying “I’ll be alright Blue, gonna do some quick recon.” He dashed into the jungle cautiously and hopped tree to tree to follow the yelling, and crashing, but it quickly stopped, so he followed where he thought he heard it. 

The paladin narrowed his eyes to see a big bulbous shape move in the foreground, so he took cover behind some plant life to spy on what it was doing. It was a giant grey thing, but not so animalistic. It was really big like everything else on this planet, but it was also humanoid, but this time its appearance kind of reminded him of trolls in children’s books. Hairless, gray, thick, flappy skin, and it wore tears of fabric. It heaved and groaned as it seemed to caress something in its hands, but its back was turned to Lance so he couldn’t tell what it was.

In the distance he heard a loud low yell, and the troll like creature, lets just call them trolls, looked up at the noise to see another one of its kind coming towards him. They seemed to communicate through grunts and groans as they mumbled about what was in the previous trolls hands. And eventually they seemed to come to some sort of agreement as the second troll left somewhere first and the first troll followed afterwards. But as the trolls began to leave Lance could see what was in the creature’s hands.

His eyes widened as he covered his mouth to see Keith in that things grasp, as they seemed to carry him away. Keith seemed to be unconscious as the monsters carried him off, but Lance noticed that his helmet was dented and there was a big tear in his left sleeve. 

So he was on this planet, and he was actually near by. Lance wondered if he heard his calls, and why he wasn’t in the Red Lion. But his skin began to crawl as he watched helplessly as these big creatures seemed to take him away. Lance followed slowly behind them, cautiously making sure they don’t spot him, until they came across an opening with a giant wooden wall before them. The trolls passed through this gate to the inside of the campus, but Lance couldn’t see an easy access in. He would have to retreat for a moment back to the Blue Lion, hoping that Keith will be safe until then.

Once Blue’s all patched up he can’t leave this planet now that he knows Keith landed on it too, and is in the clutches of these giant troll monsters. He’ll have to try to send a message to the others once Blue is operational, but he’ll need to go after Keith first.

-

Once he got back to Blue he continued to work more, faster, until night fell again and they both evacuated behind Blue’s barrier. He could hear things in the night calling and yelling, but was unsure if that was the giant bird, the grey things, trolls, or something else. He took to sleeping in the cockpit and was sound asleep, curled in the chair when he felt Blue brush his mind, waking him up. He felt her remain alert as she sensed something outside the barrier. Lance stood up and walked to her jaw to open up and see beyond the barrier were the glowing people.

They stood waiting patiently for him and as he slowly approached them he looked to their eyes to see them glow with emotion. The one standing in the middle seemed to have some sort of limp, and that’s when Lance put two and two together to realize that’s the one that almost got snagged by that bird last night. He came to them and they seem to stand up higher to his presence even though a couple of them were floating. 

When he reached the edge of the barrier he waved to them nervously and said “Um… hi,” he was still taken away with the beauty of them just being what they were that he didn’t quite know what to say.

The middle one came closer and with a voice that seemed to be more than a whisper, with a sort of glowing air coming from their mouth it said, “I am Cai. You rescued me last night.”

“Yeah,” Lance nodded placing his hands on his hips “I remember, what are you doing here?”

“We came to thank you for saving my light, without you I would have been swallowed by Ein, the darkness thief of light,” Cai explained.

“You mean, that giant bird?” Lance questioned with Cai nodding in a response.

“Ein has hunted our kind for centuries and is the most deadly beast of the night,” Cai stated “But you saved my life from Ein. Please, what is the name of my savior?”

Lance felt a little heat rise to his cheeks, but felt a wave of gratitude soar into his heart, so what did he do? He smirked and wiggled his eyebrow in flirtation “Name’s Lance. I’m the blue paladin of Voltron.”

“Voltron?” Cai repeated as the others whispered behind them “The Legend Voltron still lives.”

Lance nodded proudly and said “Sure thing. We’ve been fighting to defeat Zarkon, but my lion crash-landed on your planet after some confrontation with some asteroids. I was protecting a fellow paladin, but we’ve both managed to crash on this planet of yours.”

“Where is your comrade?”

“He was taken by these giant ugly troll like creature,” Lance explained then pointed across Blue saying “They’re about five kilometers that way.”

“I see,” Cai, but right after they said that a call came from above the woods that was reminiscent of Ein’s screeches which at that the glowing people started fidget under the weight of anticipation. Lance noticed this change in demeanor and decided to invite them into the safety of the particle barrier. Blue didn’t seem to mind as she raised the barrier for them as they scurried on into the safety of the blue light.

Once inside they all sat around in a circle with Lance beginning to ask them question after question “Okay, I got to say I’m glad you’re okay,” which Cai reacted to smiling at that, but he still continued “But I’m gonna need some answers. What is this planet called, what are you people, are those troll things killable?”

Cai thought for a moment and said, “This is Cucci, the planet of plants, even in the most northern regions there are plants that grow through ice. We are the Sol of this planet, we are the lights of the night, and the sun of the day.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Lance flailed his arms stopping them “You guys make up the sun?”

“Yes, our civilizations lives on the moons that circle this planet and when night arrives we come down to live amongst the plants,” Cai said “At night the moon becomes to cold for us to stay so that is why we must come down.” 

“And the trolls?”

“The trolls, or the Creepers as we like to call them, have lived on this world longer than we have, but they are a stagnant race. Always violent, they haven’t gained much intelligence in the thousands of years they lived here.” Lace snorted at that but Cai continued “They are omnivores, but mostly eat the plants that live here, but since they are part of the Shadow Colors-“

“Woah, wait what are Shadow Colors?” Lance interrupted

“They are beings that live at the lowest depths of the world,” Cai told him “Even though Creepers don’t usually come out during the day I have seen a few do so if something of value catches their eyes. They mostly stay indoors until night anyways.”

“What do you mean of value?” Lance questioned, feeling a sense of worry cloud his mind.

“All Shadow Colors like creatures of light, creatures of bright colors, they search after them,” Cai said “Though our suns are too bright for them, they cherish us if we are few in numbers. They catch us and then put us on display. But other Shadow Colors like Ein, hate our colors and want our life snuffed out so Cucci will be snuffed out of all light.”

Lance thought for a moment and then said, “Is that why they took my friend, because he is colorful and not grey like them?”

“Yes,” Cai stated “They probably saw him as something pretty and wanted him for themselves.”

“But they won’t hurt him?” Lance asked quickly.

Cai turned to the others but then to him saying, “No, I wouldn’t think so.”

Lance sighed in relief, but crossed his finger in hope that he can still save him. He closed his eyes for a moment but when he opened them he saw Cai closer saying, “Are you alright Blue Paladin?”

He shook his head with a pained smile on his lips saying, “Since Keith-uh-the Red Paladin is captured I’ve been worried sick about him, but I don’t know how to help him. I hope he’s okay.”

Cai stared at him for a moment then said, “Let us help you Blue Paladin.”

“Huh?”


End file.
